1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to litter or bedding for commercial poultry raising facilities, along with a process for improving and enhancing the commercial viability of these types of facilities. The invention also provides a valuable and economically attractive use of citrus byproduct or waste, including components thereof, for use as the litter or bedding in commercial poultry raising operations. Citrus byproduct can be used alone or in combination with traditional bedding components.
The citrus byproduct invention improves the performance of the litter or bedding, including reducing ammonia levels and litter moisture. The invention also improves the birds raised, such as by significantly reducing the occurrence of poultry imperfections, enhancing bird health and feed efficiency and reducing bird mortality. Implementation of the invention successfully addresses a vexing problem of beetle infestation in commercial poultry raising.
2. Description of Related Art
Current commercial-scale poultry raising operations house the poultry in confined spaces. Floors of those spaces traditionally are covered with bedding litter material. Feed and water is made available to the chicks so they can mature into adult birds which typically are intended as a food source. Generally, these are high volume facilities, and efficiency and cost control are extremely important. While the majority of these operations are for chicken production, other poultry can be included, such as turkey, ducks, geese and less common poultry as well.
In a typical commercial operation of this type, the poultry remains on the litter or bedding for the duration of its stay within the confined location. Under these circumstances, excretion and feces from the birds collect on the litter bed throughout the birds' stay within the confined space. While the birds remain under these conditions, the volume of bird droppings increases throughout this confinement period. Under these conditions, conventional bedding litter materials tend to deteriorate, and their effectiveness in functioning to reduce contact between the birds and their droppings is severely tested. Many litter materials fail in their intended function, especially as the time during which the birds live on the litter increases. Furthermore, most litter materials do not provide any substantial active components to counteract the negative effects of the bird excrement.
Poor litter performance is undesirable. It can allow for contact between the birds and deleterious droppings components and/or resultant products such as ammonia. Used litter also becomes seeded with pathogens and fungi. Parasites, for example, can be found in poultry pen litter. Litter beetles can flourish and are highly destructive. Moist conditions typically contribute significantly to forming or providing a breeding ground for certain negative litter quality factors, as noted in Lacy, “Litter Quality and Broiler Performance,” The University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, Athens, Ga., 1991, incorporated by reference hereinto. In some commercial poultry operations, litter is reused for multiple growing cycles, creating even greater challenges for the bedding litter.
Rehberger U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,333, incorporated by reference hereinto, recognizes these types of problems and their manifestation as foot pad lesions, breast blisters, and air sac infections, for example. This prior art patent proposes a biological solution to these litter problems by treating poultry litter with a composition for producing a certain blend of bacteria. This proposed type of treatment adds cost, can be perceived as a non-organic approach, and does not address the inherent deficiencies of conventional litter material itself.
Typically preferred litter material for poultry houses is a cellulosic litter from woody sources such as pine wood shavings and saw dust. As noted in the Lacy article, other proposed litter materials include various other cellulosic and woody materials, each having disadvantages as noted in that article. Included in this suggested litter material are hardwood shavings and sawdust, pine or hardwood chips, processed paper, rice hulls, peanut hulls, sugarcane pomace (bagasse), crushed corn cobs, and chopped straw, hay or corn stover.
Prior art proposal have included citrus-originating materials for use in poultry litter. In Harms et al., “Citrus Pulp for Poultry Litter and its Subsequent Feeding Value for Ruminants,” Agricultural Experiment Stations Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences University of Florida, Gainsville, Fla., Technical Bulletin 724, April, 1968, incorporated by reference hereinto, the authors report on testing which they state indicates that citrus pulp could be used as a litter for broils chicks without adversely affecting their performance and that citrus pulp was a satisfactory material for absorbing moisture from the droppings. Sabara et al., “Evaluation of Citrus Pulp Pellets as Broiler Litter”, Brazilian Journal of Poultry Science, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Volume 2, Number 3, Pages 273-280, 2000, incorporated by reference hereinto, mentions the use of citrus pulp pellets in litter beds for chickens. Lower pH values and elevated temperatures were reported for the citrus pulp pellet litter beds.
While poultry house litter or bedding has long been recognized as falling far short of solving many problems associated with raising poultry under economically efficient but confining conditions which are typically characteristic of commercial poultry raising operations, proposals heretofore have fallen short of successfully addressing a multitude of concerns within the poultry industry.
Previously proposed approaches include adding expensive active agents to conventional bedding materials. While these may be useful in treating particular problems such as pathogens, they do so with added cost and require added worker time and/or they often do not address other, larger overall issue such as bed deterioration, ammonia, moisture, bird quality and mortality, beetle infestation, and feed efficiency. Active agent addition typically is required when the same litter material is used for multiple growing cycles, usually being incorporated during turning or fluffing of the previously used litter right in the pen. At times, non-organic agents are proposed for these purposes and for either fresh or recycled litter.
A particularly desirable solution would be to be able to use an inexpensive natural source for a litter or bedding component or as a litter material itself in order to address these types of long-standing problems. Effective materials which do not require processing to be suitable for use in fresh or recycled bedding litter are recognized herein as being of value in this regard.
The present invention addresses these problems and objectives by providing litter or litter components which are inexpensive, widely available and advantageous as litter material. The invention provides a bedding litter for poultry raising houses which has as the litter material itself, either alone or combined with other litter materials, citrus byproduct which is citrus peel from citrus operations or components from citrus peel or pulp byproduct or waste from citrus juice extraction. The invention also entails a process for enhancing commercial poultry raising operations, which includes adding citrus byproduct material to the floor area of a space within which poultry chicks are raised until they achieve a size suitable for commercial meat supplies, while reducing poultry imperfections, adjusted feed conversion and beetle infestation and while improving the value of the poultry meat.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved bedding litter for commercial poultry operations.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved bedding litter for commercial poultry operations or to improve existing bedding litter for these types of uses.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved poultry litter using a natural organic source of bedding litter and an improved poultry raising process which reduces imperfections in poultry during the course of poultry contact with the litter and which results in improvements in poultry raising economics.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved poultry litter composition and poultry raising enhancement process by which a change in the composition of the poultry litter itself addresses substantial problems in poultry raising.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an economically beneficial and productive outlet for large quantities of solid byproduct from commercial citrus juice expressing operations which otherwise would be of low economic value.
A further object of this invention is to provide a product and process which enhances the effectiveness of poultry feed in translating into bird weight.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved poultry litter and process for reducing moisture and ammonia build up during the growing cycle of the birds.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved poultry litter and process by which beetles such as darkling beetles and their larva are controlled.
Another object of embodiments of the present invention is to provide a product and process in the poultry litter business where litter components remain as intact particles that are not substantially degraded, do not turn to compost, and do not cake together in the manner experienced by conventionally used current bedding litters.
Another object of embodiments of this invention is to provide improved product and process advances which use effective and inexpensive litter material in its “native” state without requiring extraction, isolation, purification, and/or physical modification.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a poultry bedding litter which, after use as a litter, provides a natural or organic source of animal food or fertilizer with acceptable nutrients and of a more positive environmental character.
Another object of embodiments of this invention is to provide a superior top dressing material which is economically effective due to its low cost and excellent performance in rejuvenating bedding litter which otherwise would perform poorly.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved litter bedding and use thereof which includes top dressing of more conventional litter material for providing enhanced litter performance especially concerning ammonia and beetle control.
A further object of this invention is to provide a citrus litter of enhanced usefulness and economical cost through the use of flake material produced as byproduct from commercial citrus extraction.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be understood from the following description according to preferred embodiments of the present invention, relevant information concerning which is shown in the accompanying drawings.